1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the use of ethoxylated fatty acid esters as self-emulsifiable compounds, particularly useful for preparing phytosanitary treatment products or medicines for veterinary or human use.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that an emulsion is a mixture of water and oil stabilised by surfactants.
The dispersion of oil in water (or water in oil) in the form of droplets sufficiently fine for obtaining a stable emulsion necessitates bringing about energy which is often considerable.
Furthermore, any oily preparation is called self-emulsifiable which is capable of forming a stable emulsion with an aqueous phase, practically without bringing about energy, by dispersion in the aqueous phase by slow mechanical stirring for example.
Self-emulsifiable compositions are particularly appreciated each time that mixtures with an aqueous phase, generally water, must be prepared without the need for efficient means of stirring.
Thus, it is notably a matter of:
within the context of domestic uses, e.g. for the preparation of household cleaning materials or gardening products;
within the context of agricultural uses, e.g. for the preparation of phytosanitary products intended for storage in tanks or other containers;
in the pharmaceutical field, e.g. for the preparation of extemporaneously made medicines.
Self-emulsifiable preparations have been described for a long time in the state of the art, especially in the agrochemical field.
These preparations are generally constituted of mineral oils or petroleum fractions to which not very harmful surfactants such as ethoxylated alkyl phenols in particular have been added.
Such preparations are however weakly biodegradable and therefore represent a potential danger to the environment, which has limited the development of them over the last years.
Recently, research has been orientated towards substitute products for petroleum oils and the use has been recommended to this end of biodegradable oils such as triglycerides or methyl esters of fatty acids in particular.
However, these oils are much more difficult to emulsify than mineral oils.
Furthermore, it has also been envisaged to replace ethoxylated alkyl phenols by biodegradable surfactants, but this has proved to be extremely difficult for cost and efficiency reasons.